News Roundup 01 December 2020
Dec 01, 2020 • 4 min Read
Philippines records 1,298 new COVID-19 cases; total hits 432,925 | PHILSTAR.COM – The country’s confirmed coronavirus increased to nearly 433,000 Tuesday as the government decided to keep Metro Manila and seven other areas under general community quarantine until the end of the year. The Department of Health reported 1,298 new infections, raising the country’s caseload to 432,925. Tuesday’s tally did not include data from 15 laboratories that failed to submit their results on time. The DOH also logged 135 new recoveries, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors in the country to 398,782. Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 8,418 after 27 more patients succumbed to the disease.
‘Why me?’: Roque laments coverage of him at mass gathering | PHILSTAR.COM – Presidential spokesman Harry Roque on Tuesday took issue with the media’s reporting on his apparent violation of community quarantine rules in Cebu over the weekend. This comes after pictures of him addressing a large crowd during a tourism event in Bantayan Island on Friday were widely criticized by social media users. Roque himself has reminded the public that mass gatherings are prohibited under community quarantine protocols. During a virtual briefing on Tuesday, the COVID-19 task force spokesman took the opportunity to deflect blame for the incident to everyone from the local government, the attendees and even the media. He also took a swipe at Vice President Leni Robredo, presenting pictures of her shaking hands with Filipinos affected by the recent onslaught of typhoons during relief operations and questioned why the “mainstream” media chose not to cover such incidents. “What hurts my feelings is [they are] taking a stab at me….Why is it always me being attacked by Inquirer or ABS-CBN? How come when it wa VP Leni shaking hands, wasn’t that a violation? My request to the media is to be fair,” he said in Filipino on Tuesday. Later in the afternoon, Robredo’s spokesman Barry Gutierrez fired back at Roque for dragging the vice president into the issue. “I look forward to the day when officials in this administration can be accountable, accept responsibility and commit to doing better, instead of bashing the VP every time the Filipino public call out shortcomings,” he said.
Church leaders question arrest of ex-NDFP peace consultant | INQUIRER.NET – A group of Christian church leaders advocating for peace is questioning the arrest of Alfredo Mapano, former peace talk consultant of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), while he was at work in a government corporation in Misamis Oriental province. “Is the government program of national reconciliation and rebel reintegration all for show?” said Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) in a statement. The statement was signed by PEPP conveners Archbishop-emeritus Antonio Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro Archdiocese, Bishop Felixberto Calang of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) Diocese of Cagayan de Oro and Bishop Ligaya San Francisco of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) northwestern Mindanao. It said the case of Mapano cast doubt on the sincerity of the government’s call for rebels to lay down their arms and return to the fold of the law.
CHR: Red-tagging prevalent under Duterte administration | Manila Bulletin – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) noted a spike in red-tagging or red-baiting incidents during the Duterte administration. Speaking at the Senate defense committee’s inquiry on red-tagging issues Tuesday, CHR Commissioner Karen Dumpit said from 2009 to 2016, the commission recorded only 25 red-tagging incidents, while from 2016 to 2020, they “already” logged 96 red-tagging reports. “Given the period of 2009 to 2016, that’s about seven years, as opposed to [four] years, you can just imagine the spike in data that we have,” Dumpit told the Senate panel. In the hearing, the CHR official cited the commission’s report that red-tagging is being used by the military and paramilitary units to easily silence dissent.
Requirements for purchase of poll machines waived? | Malaya Business Insight – Senators yesterday slammed an alleged move to insert a provision in the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) that will exempt the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from complying with the requirements in the acquisition of automated election equipment. Senate President Vicente Sotto III, in a post in his Twitter account, vowed to block the supposed attempt, and was immediately backed by Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon and Sen. Panfilo Lacson. The senators were reacting to a Twitter post of election lawyer Emil Marañon that “someone at the Senate” wanted to give the Comelec a “carte blanche authority” to waive all the requirements and safeguards in Section 12 of the Automated Election Law. “With this, Comelec can now adopt an untested new system or it can waive all safeguards, mandatory tests, certifications, review by political parties, and election watchdogs, among others. If this happen, the upcoming election can no longer be trusted,” said Marañon in his post.
